Dress up, Conferences, and Cherry Blossoms

Terri and I had another great week with missionaries.  We started the week with 10 of our sisters at what is known as Hwaseong Fortress.  It is in Suwon and was once a walled city protecting the king's summer residence.  I think we mentioned it in an August post.  We went with the express interest of renting the local traditional Hanbok, the clothing of the Korean people.  These young ladies were beautiful.  So many people stopped us to take pictures of the girls or just took pictures as we walked.

 Can you tell which ones are not missionaries?

 If any of these are your daughters, you can be proud, they are amazing.  They told me, their chaperone, I needed to put on my happy face.  I told them, this is my happy face!

We had three more zone conferences and truly enjoyed the training and learning that occurred.  These are amazingly bright young people.  We wish you could hear their musical talents!

 I was the cameraman today.  You get enough of me.

 When we ask them to set up the rooms, they always seem to always find the biggest, softest chair for the old president and his wife...

 Terri did her usual cooking demonstration.  30 minute meal with sweet potatoes, rice, chicken, onions, carrots and a simple sauce.  The missionaries really enjoy it!

 President even got into the training using some of his graphing skills.  As you can see there's good trend lines, they are working hard.  We truly enjoy them!

We were exhausted by the end of these three days, but there is always something to keep us busy. the second counselor in our mission presidency is moving to Busan, South Korea this summer to be the president of that mission.  We spent the day with him and his wife and chatted about their new responsibilities.  We shopped, ate, made dinner at their house and had wonderful day.  The missionaries in that mission will be blessed.

 Some good Hoddeok to take away the hunger pains.

 The Jeong family bird!

 Surprisingly, they did the posing here...

 Their son is on a mission in Daejeon and a daughter is in Busan.  Their youngest daughter will go with them.  I'm not sure about the family bird.

Maybe the bird is trying to make friends so he can stay in Seoul.

 We caught the end of the local Cherry Blossom Festival near us and took a few pictures.  These two sweet young sisters truly are delightful.

 These two office elders are the muscle holding the mission operations together.

 In the park very near our home we took a stroll on Sunday.  The Azaleas were amazing.  The weather couldn't be better.

 In the park is the tomb of a nobleman from the late 1500's from this area.  The statues are really that old.  There are five or six in the park that are very nice.

 

Finally, for those interested in food, we visited a local Japanese pork and chicken cutlet restaurant.  I had the pork and Terri had the chicken.  She made the better choice.  However, it was still really good.  We have so many options here.  However, sometimes we'd like a chimichunga, burrito, or soft taco.  For some reason, Mexican food is not very prevalent here.

This week we start into interviews.  We won't get pictures of everyone, but I'm sure we'll get some good ones!  We're having a great time and hopefully, they don't mind having us around!